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This European Policy Centre (EPC) commentary warns against too-high expectations, raised by German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the EU's 50th anniversary celebrations in Berlin, that member states will be able to break the Constitutional Treaty deadlock.
Merkel's 2009 deadline for settling the institutional reform appears highly ambitious, the report argues, and further suggests that the gap between the Constitutional Treaty's supporters and those who favour a minimalist approach has, if anything, widened since the beginning of 2007.
Also cited is a "curious - and glaring - omission from last weekend's discussions...after all the talk of 'reconnecting with the citizens'...The Berlin Declaration referred only to the 'democratic interaction of the Member States and the European institutions' and the 'will of the member states'...Merkel was addressing fellow EU leaders, not the general public, when she said 'I am counting on your support'."
According to the EPC "the most crucial question of all - how to engage the public in the debate over Europe’s future and gain their support for whatever agreement emerges from that process - remains unanswered".
Source: European Policy Centre
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